France man shouts ‘Allahu Akbar’, kills three in Nice; world leaders condemn deadly attacks
A knife-wielding attacker shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is Greatest) beheaded a girl and killed two different individuals in a church within the French metropolis of Nice on Thursday. A defiant President Emmanuel Macron, declaring that France had been topic to an Islamist terrorist assault, stated he would deploy 1000’s of extra troopers to guard vital French websites, equivalent to locations of worship and colleges.
Speaking from the scene, he stated France had been attacked “over our values, for our taste for freedom, for the ability on our soil to have freedom of belief”. “And I say it with lots of clarity again today: we will not give any ground.”
Tunisian attacker: A police supply advised Reuters the assailant was believed by legislation enforcement to be a 21-year-old Tunisian nationwide who had lately entered France from Italy. Tunisia`s anti-terrorism court docket prosecutor started a forensic investigation into “the suspicion that a Tunisian committed a terrorist operation abroad”, Mohsen Dali, spokesman for the specialised counter-militancy court docket, stated in Tunis.
Samuel Paty: Nice`s mayor, Christian Estrosi, stated the assault in his metropolis had occurred at Notre Dame church and was just like the beheading earlier this month close to Paris of instructor Samuel Paty, who had used cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad in a civics class. Thursday`s assaults, on the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad, got here at a time of rising Muslim anger at France`s defence of the precise to publish the cartoons, and protesters have denounced France in avenue rallies in a number of Muslim-majority international locations.
Another assault: Within hours of the Nice assault, French police killed a person who had threatened passersby with a handgun in Montfavet, close to the southern metropolis of Avignon. France`s Le Figaro newspaper quoted a prosecution supply as saying the person was present process psychiatric remedy, and that they didn’t imagine there was a terrorism motive.
Security alert raised: After the Nice assault, Prime Minister Jean Castex raised France`s safety alert to its highest degree. Estrosi stated the Nice attacker had repeatedly shouted “Allahu Akbar” even being detained by police. At round 9 a.m. (0800 GMT), a person armed with a knife entered the church and slit the throat of the sexton, beheaded an aged lady, and badly wounded a 3rd lady, in line with a police supply.
The sexton and the aged lady died on the spot, the third lady managed to make it out of the church into a close-by cafe, the place she died, Estrosi advised reporters. None of the victims has to this point been named. “The suspected knife attacker was shot by police while being detained. He is on his way to the hospital, he is alive,” he stated. “Enough is enough. It`s time now for France to exonerate itself from the laws of peace in order to definitively wipe out Islamo-fascism from our territory.”
Reuters journalists on the scene stated police armed with computerized weapons had put up a safety cordon across the church, which is on Nice`s Avenue Jean Medecin, the French Riviera metropolis`s important procuring thoroughfare. Ambulances and fireplace service autos had been additionally on the scene.
India on the assault: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday condemned the latest terrorist assaults in France and expressed heartfelt condolences to the households of the victims and the individuals of France. Taking to micro-blogging web site Twitter, PM Modi additionally assured that India stands with France in its struggle in opposition to terrorism. PM Modi tweeted, “I strongly condemn the recent terrorist attacks in France, including today’s heinous attack in Nice inside a church. Our deepest and heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and the people of France. India stands with France in the fight against terrorism.”
World leaders on the assault: US President Donald Trump voiced sympathy for the individuals of France after the assault. “America stands with our oldest Ally in this fight. These Radical Islamic terrorist attacks must stop immediately. No country, France or otherwise can long put up with it!” Trump stated in a Twitter put up.
Condemnations of the assault additionally got here from Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, whose President Tayyip Erdogan earlier this week slammed Macron and France over shows of the Prophet Mohammad.
Turkish Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun stated Islam couldn’t be used within the identify of terrorism, including: “We call on the French leadership to avoid further inflammatory rhetoric against Muslims and focus, instead, on finding the perpetrators of this and other acts of violence.”
Solidarity: In Paris, lawmakers within the National Assembly noticed a minute`s silence. The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, stated the individuals of Nice “can count on the support of the city of Paris and of Parisians”. A consultant of the French Council for the Muslim Faith additionally condemned the assault. “As a sign of mourning and solidarity with the victims and their loved ones, I call on all Muslims in France to cancel all the celebrations of the holiday of Mawlid.” The vacation is the birthday of the Prophet Mohammad, celebrated on Thursday.
The overseas ministry of Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam, stated “extremist acts” equivalent to that in Nice “contravene all religions, while stressing “the significance of avoiding all practices which generate hatred, violence and extremism”.
France continues to be reeling from the killing by a person of Chechen origin of schoolteacher Paty in a Paris suburb earlier this month. The assailant stated he wished to punish Paty for exhibiting pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad to his pupils.
France, with Europe`s largest Muslim neighborhood, has suffered a string of Islamist militant assaults lately, together with bombings and shootings in 2015 in Paris that killed 130 individuals and a 2016 assault in Nice through which a militant drove a truck by a seafront crowd celebrating Bastille Day, killing 86.
Pope Francis: Pope Francis condemned as “savage” an assault through which three individuals had been killed at a church in France on Thursday, and the Vatican stated terrorism and violence had been by no means acceptable. “Informed of the savage attack which was perpetrated this morning in a church in Nice, causing the death of several innocent people, His Holiness Pope Francis joins in prayer with the suffering of the families and shares their grief,” stated a message despatched in his identify to the bishop of Nice.
It stated the pope condemned “in the most energetic manner such violent acts of terror” and urged the French individuals to stay united. Earlier, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni stated the assault “sowed death in a place of love and consolation,” a home of God. “It is a moment of pain in a time of confusion. Terrorism and violence can never be accepted,” Bruni stated.
In Saudi Arabia, in the meantime, state tv reported {that a} Saudi man had been arrested within the Red Sea metropolis of Jeddah after attacking and injuring a guard on the French consulate. The French Embassy stated he was within the hospital after a knife assault although his life was not in peril.
with inputs from Reuters
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